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As part of a community of Tiger Moth flyers, Annabelle was particularly affected by the news.

“Luckily I haven’t had any more moments like that in the past year”, she said.

The AAIB - the Air Accidents Investigation Branch - reported on Annabelle's crash in March of this year.

Like an emergency doctor at the time, it concluded Annabelle's skills and actions were crucial to avoiding injury or death for those in her plane.

The report said: "The pilot had an instructor rating and hence had good recency in practice forced landings.

"This, and the fairly low height when the fire started, were probably factors that resulted in a successful forced landing."

You can read Somerset Live’s full report about Annabelle’s heroism from August 30 2016 below.

Heroic pilot makes her own luck after saving lives with skilful crash-landing near Somerset and Dorset border

Annabelle Burroughes lives in Stalbridge. She safely brought down her Tiger Moth when it caught fire in August 2016 - saving the lives of three passengers (Image: Terry Fisher)

A pilot hailed as a life-saving hero by the emergency services has said she makes her own luck after crash-landing a plane which caught fire mid-flight.

Annabelle Burroughes skilfully put down her light aircraft in a field – avoiding a disaster which could have claimed the life of her three passengers, as well as her own.

The flying veteran of 18 years, who teaches people to pilot Tiger Moths at Henstridge airfield, realised something was wrong when she started to smell smoke not long after taking off on Saturday afternoon (August 27).

She said: “I realised I needed to put it in a field. When the engine stopped because of the fire I had to turn off the fuel. We weren’t very high up so I didn’t have a lot of options.

“We put it down in a field just between Marnhull and the airfield.

“There was an element of luck about it but if you keep practicing you put the luck your way.”

An air ambulance photograph shows the crash scene, after Tiger Moth pilot Annabelle Burroughes safely brought down her plane when it was on fire in August 2016

Annabelle regularly rehearses forced landings with her students and the practice paid off.

But the remarkable calm displayed by her passengers also helped everyone get out of the terrifying situation in one piece.

She added: “My passengers were a joy. I had a father with his 31-year-old daughter and 17-year-old son. They were calm as a cucumber. I hope they didn’t have a clue what was going on and how bad it was because that’s my job.”

However the pilot admits the engine fire – which will now presumably become another anecdote in training – could have ended very differently for everyone on board.

She said: “it was lovely this all worked out so well because it all could have gone very differently with all that fuel on board.

“But I’m always flying. I’m flying Tiger Moths, what’s not to like! And this sort of thing is not very common. I’ve only spoken to two other pilots who have dealt with fires in the air.”

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She said: “The fire brigade were lovely but I think they were a bit sad they couldn’t use their hoses! I got a ride back to the airfield in the fire engine which was exciting because I’ve never been in one before.”

A spokesman for the Air Accidents Investigation Branch said it was investigating the crash to see if any lessons can be learnt from it. Its findings are expected to be released in the next two or three months.